Настучать в бубен / Hit the tambourine: Глава 12-2

Panic was one thing, but logic was another. The body would be far from being able to function as soon as the inhabitant who had been absent for over a week returned to it. Even though Stepan had taken care of everything, even though the body was supported by healing spirits which even now had not stopped working, even though the body was nourished by the potions he drank, even though the atmospheric moisture condensed in his stomach to quench his thirst, but still he would have to lie down for at least another hour after the return. Stepan had not counted on such a powerful chase. He could not even imagine a scenario in which he would have to bring such a fierce crowd to his home. With a weaker enemy his guardian spirits would have coped without the participation of the shaman, but now his participation is damn important and necessary. He could help, he could adjust the work of the defense array, guide his wards, recall the most tired, distribute the quality of nourishment from totems among the participants of the battle and cut off this nourishment to the enemy. However, then you will have to become solely a conductor. It will no longer be possible to participate in the battle personally, just pointless it will be. He will only interfere with his own subordinates.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 18:20

The decision had to be made quickly. Stepan made his decision without going down to the body. On the contrary, he went up higher, reaching out with all his senses and essence to his will, which impregnated the place as tightly as he could make it. The first line of defense had almost fallen, but among all the attacking spirits who had rushed into that line, following in the wake of the spiritual express from the shaman's bracelets, no one had noticed how that very line, weakened in front, had become monolithic in the back, cutting off the possibility of retreat. Yes, when he created this line, he was obviously thinking of something else. He didn't want to be the cause of the village's extinction if one of the creatures went somewhere else, to the people. But he hadn't counted on such a crowd of guests.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 18:23

The spiritual world was distorted, shut in on itself, and even though it was not yet a spiritual pocket, escaping from the resulting trap would be a challenge even for the most dangerous of the entities that followed him. The main enemy, to Stepan's great fortune, really did not pursue the fleeing man. He could still fight with the rest. The first of the lines of defense burst and the creatures with all their evil wave rushed into the space of special control, flickering between the trees, stumps, and fallen leaves and getting closer and closer to the clearing itself, where so beckoned from the smell-light-substance of the exposed spirit of the shaman and his powerful totems. The circle of cut-off closed finally, cutting off the clearing and two hundred meters of radius from the edges of the clearing from the rest of the spiritual plane, which did not strengthen Stepan and his retinue but slightly weakened the forces of the attackers.

Camrad_RIP 06.06.24 в 16:01

Next, before the enemy entered the clearing itself, Stepan played the first act of the coming storm, starting to activate his preparations. The first to go off were the trinkets and cloth ribbons hanging in the trees, and the signs carved around the tree trunks glowed with a light invisible to the ordinary eye. It's not an attack yet. It just strengthens the weakening effect and a chance to scan the enemy normally. And he's not happy with the results - many, many dumb and evil masses, both small and larger, as well as at least eight pockets of really strong spiritual disturbances. Some of them were triggered by a mass of small spirits, some by a few strong spirits or one strong one with an entourage of a bunch of small ones, but at least three were just damn powerful bastards who'd come to savor a shaman's body and didn't need an entourage to do it.

Camrad_RIP 06.06.24 в 16:05

//You motherfuckers, I'm gonna feed you like this for the rest of your life, for the rest of your fucking ten minutes!
Despite his bravado, he was calming himself down now, because there were so many creatures gathered for his soul. On the other hand, his bravado was not entirely unfounded, and he immediately began to prove it, both to himself and to his opponent. A will pull a thread, a wish pointing to the malleable matter of the spiritual reflection of the bloody glade, and he was already mixing his calls, pre-created preparations, territorial magic, and scraps of witchcraft available to him, reaching for the pots buried under the ground from the generous potter, reaching for what he had left there and activating them all at once. At the same time, he pulled another strand of his will, weaving the third limb into a multitude of small tentacles, each pointing to the bulk of the totems, or simply to the patches of grooves covering the tamped earth that merged into primitive but effective restraining patterns.

Camrad_RIP 06.06.24 в 16:08

The ribbons hanging from the branches and trunks begin to smoke as if burning in an invisible fire. They give off heat and an extremely unpleasant odor-not odor for spirits, but the effect of pepper spray in the face of the creatures that got too close is actually a side effect of the main idea. It's as if an air-wind wave and some unhealthy buzzing are going through the spirit world, braiding images and attempts to send those images, depriving the already not particularly coordinated creatures of the remnants of that coordination. First of all, the blow was directed against the guides, that is, the grown representatives of the pack entities, which came after him not only alone but also in the company of the pack, directed by them. It did not deprive them of control, but at most slowed their responses and loosened the leash on the dense and angry crowd of little things.

Camrad_RIP 06.06.24 в 16:12

And suddenly, without giving the enemy a second thought, the unextinguished coals in the pots buried under a thin layer of earth were lit. The pseudo-totems, the trap totems, which had served as the basis of the supporting barriers, were now acting as bait. This decoy was deceptively sweet and nourishing, full of offerings burning in embers and smoke, so accessible and free. And the dumb, angry, aggressive, and also permanently hungry fry literally rushed into those pots. Their trouble was that the smoke in the pots was really full of power, not the worst offerings were used for fuel and coals but only these offerings were scarce, and the spirits who broke into the pots, on the contrary, a lot. And it was possible to leave this totem only after Stepan had unlocked the base of the lock, which he was not going to do. And here, in the cramped and uncomfortable totem, soaked with the smoke of incense and the embers of offerings, the spirits of various spheres gathered spontaneously fell under the last, hitherto hidden effect of the pots: they sharply ceased to distinguish between temporary allies and food. Well, it was not for nothing that he selected such special additives in the smoke to provoke a massacre between unintelligent and stupid creatures, was it?

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 13:58

The crowd had seemed incredibly huge and invincible was sharply reduced by times, by orders of magnitude even, which immediately raised the morale of Stepan, and the defenders hastily arriving at the contract call, and, of course, those of the battle spirits, which were already sitting in totems, waiting for the order to tear and torment. In reality, of course, it was not a drop in the sea, but not a crushing damage: the loss of the enemy all this little thing simplified the life of the shaman and his retinue, but did not make the enemy less dangerous, because he did not lose even a fourth of its power, because the strongest or at least just not too small spirits did not react to such an obvious trap.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 14:01

Some of them, even the more or less strong ones, had fallen into individual traps, like trap pits, snares, and predator pockets, which reduced the number of attackers even more. It was a pity, but most of these traps, which could have been a serious problem even for strong spirits, were activated by the same crowd, wasting their potential on worthless targets. It was a shame when a hunger pit with a destructive pulse that could seriously injure even one of the eight brightest opponents was activated on a random small leech. On the other hand, more massive traps were more effective, like rocks scattered here and there, which first drew in small spirits and the surrounding ether, and then the invested effect forcibly and temporarily changed their aspects into one shared one, rather than making them synchronously die of conflict. And then the power came back out of the cracked stone, releasing the ether poisoned by its agony and death convulsions, which it used to suck up rather than hurt those too close to it. And yet, where the pots had worked perfectly, some of the traps had failed.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 14:03

But Stepan has only begun.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 14:01

The second act was marked by the finally burnt-out ribbons on the trees: blurred by smoke and ashes, they fell as weightless dust in the real world, but in the spiritual reflection they grew as revived streams of etheric breeze and began to braid not only their trees, but all the rest of the space of the glade closed on itself. Some spirits reflexively or consciously began to attack these ribbons, which significantly simplified their lives, but most of them either did not have time, or they were not so strong that they could easily tear the billet fed from the place of power of the shaman. Still in time, still the Earthman managed, unfolding his labyrinth, closing off certain sections of it of space separated by ribbons, tearing the collective of guests into separate groups. Again, this was nothing incredible, in fact he had used a similar barrier at every call where he summoned more than one spirit to keep them from attacking each other and the shaman. But now a similar barrier in plurality covered the entire clearing in separate segments, keeping it stable through long preparation and feeding from the totems. The totems tirelessly pumped through themselves the power extracted from the deep layers of the spirit world, while the spirits sitting in them, like mules, pumped the invisible pump, delivering this power. Without the material basis, which had already been successfully burned to shit, this creation would not last long, not counting the fact that many of the spirits had begun to tear apart the individual segments of the labyrinth and squeeze them with their power.

Camrad_RIP 12.06.24 в 14:07

But he doesn't need much. He had enough of what he'd already received: a manifestation of will and the first mixed group of some large leeches, beast-like stuff, dark corruptors, and who the fuck knows what else, who had miraculously not started to torment each other, was carried straight to the clearing, first almost smearing them against the second and much more powerful barrier, and then sending them straight into the jaws of the already ready summoned spirits. Stepan was not shy and called all those who were fit for this fight, and most of them came, although a couple of them only assessed the degree of danger and immediately left. Stepan did not prevent them from leaving. He just didn't have time. And if he didn't let them out, they could become the enemy's side, but he memorized each of them, involuntarily writing them down in his personal firing notebook. He would send a liquidation team after each of those who had abandoned him, despite the payment received in advance. The main thing is to survive now. However, most of those called to the battle showed up. Though they were anxious, they came and successfully built themselves into the defense, were energized by totems, and took the positions indicated by the shaman. He suppressed panic, but not adrenaline - even though the body with that adrenaline did not exist - he again accelerated himself beyond the limits of normal thinking, intuitively realizing that he would be able to repeat such a trick in a meat body, albeit with health concerns.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:28

In the meantime, the first group of the enemy delivered to the address met with a pack of jackals, a couple of dark naturals, and a small pack of wind spirits, quickly ceasing to be and exist. The fact that Stepan was still summoning now, and had originally prepared the army for this occasion with the expectation of confronting other spirits, so he had selected the appropriate properties of the contracts. It turned out that a crowd of hooligans and bandits ran into professional soldiers or killers, starting to play the role of a flock of birds thrown into a working airplane turbine. The turbines liked it and even asked for more, and Stepan hurried to fulfill the request, pulling both the second and third groups before the enemy completely broke the maze. In the third group, he dragged one of the leaders into the confines of the second line as well - surrounded by a thinned and partially potted retinue of strong spirits, like a clump of tentacles and worms in a cloud of greenish darkness. A sphere of poison and corruption. It was the standard of the kind of shit that shamans never summoned because it was useless and would cause trouble. Sometimes they do, but it's on the same level as the bomb he used in the forest near Fantrelle. Shackle it, put it in a vessel, and then release it in the enemy camp.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:32

This one was good, powerful, even dangerous. If it had not been in the front line but had supported its retinue from behind, driving them forward and feeding some of its power, it would have been hard, part of the defensive preparations would have been spoiled, and part would have had to be hastily spent to prevent the breakthrough, not to mention the losses in the summoned fighters. This entity had the unpleasant ability to give even the smallest creatures the properties of its spirit flesh - poisonousness and gradual, accumulating rot, which could also intercept the control of a weak spirit or part of the totem. A very unpleasant enemy and Stepan spared no billet for him: one of the totems, very specific and not made by Stepan at all, shone invisible in the real world beacon, the rest shone in response, and then the firefly sitting inside, received together with the totem for the completion of the almost forgotten assignment, struck a cleansing beam of the highest power, putting all available reserve in the attack and immediately sneaking back into his house. That was it, he'd had enough fighting for today, poor guy.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:36

But the corruptor turned out to be an even bigger loser, for the remnants of his retinue were simply torn off, along with pieces of spiritual flesh, and he was simultaneously stunned, paralyzed, and even a little farted. He was killed quickly and with no effort, and those who could hit from a distance were the ones who attacked. A dozen air and fire elementals fell into the real world, and Stepan shoved the stunned corruptor into it. And already in the real world, thin but powerful lightning struck, flames erupted, showering multiple sparks, several of which were stopped by the defenders covering the shaman's senseless body, and the spoilsman, who screeched inaudibly, squealed disgustingly, and screamed desperately, died in a squirming fit.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:40

It was a good start, and one should not stop after that, so Stepan did not stop. Instead pulling out the fourth and even the fifth groups. This time without strong creatures. Those, by now, had successfully torn the labyrinth around them and were now rushing towards the clearing on their own terms. They were attracted by the shaman's soul, the power spilled around them, and the traces of many calls and offerings that could be devoured from this place, so they had no reason to slow down. The reasons to be cautious were suppressed by numerical and even qualitative superiority, as well as by the general maliciousness of the cattle. Both groups of little things the growing and gradually awakening army of the young spirit caster destroyed, but he did not have time to use this trick anymore - the labyrinth had fallen and the remnants of the enemies had already started beating into the second layer of defense, running exactly along the edges of his personal clearing.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:43

Under the gaze and scanning impact of Stepan, mentally shouting new wishes of all good things to the stupid brawling shamaness and all her family, were those who in the future, very unpleasantly close, will pose the most important threat to his livelihood. Three spirits were though strong, but so, tolerably strong, in fact, dangerous only due to the support of a still significant pile of small things that they dragged behind them for the sake of cover and offense. The really difficult enemy were four spirits, which retinue or not at all or had it in its infancy, or had it, but without it they were fearsome. Looking at each of these immaterial monsters, the shaman became sad, offended, and very much wanted to still go back in time, leaving a randomly met rival in class where her own stupidity, shortsightedness, haste, and bad character led her. But since he had no time travel skills, his desire was limited to his thoughts.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:47

The first of the spirits looked humanoid, but not human. It is the owner of the largest retinue and completely different directions and spheres as if he did not care about the selection of personnel and conflicts between them. As if very thin and skinless, having been in Auschwitz and Buchenwald at the same time. He seemed so fragile that he could be broken with a blow of a stick. But the image of a mouth full of needle teeth hinted at not particularly good aspects, and there was a lot of evil and insidious power in him. Even more, he was pulling it into himself from the assembled retinue, literally sucking even unresisting spirits to the bottom, leaving them only etheric shreds and squeezed spiritual flesh. A spirit vampire, and one that seemed to be able to vampirize primarily its brethren rather than the inhabitants of the Reality. It was an unpleasant and dangerous enemy in other conditions. Here and now, Stepan put him as the least worrisome of the four, simply because his will and control over the clearing allowed him to override these suction mechanics, though not completely, but very significantly. He couldn't even squeeze his victims properly, though he hadn't even crossed the second barrier yet, beyond which the pressure of the totems would become the most intense.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:51

Such leech-like overgrowths, though not in shape and form, but in specialization, reveal themselves as a true force when they have time to prepare and the opportunity to attack first. Right now, the skinny one had neither, so his danger level could be reduced a little. But only slightly, because it's not just an overgrown leech no matter how much he wants it to be. Otherwise, it would look like one. No, it's skilled in spirit control and probably mental influence, since its victims are so willing to bear its slaughter. Not good, not good at all, but worse still, the spirits, drunk to the bottom, do not disintegrate, but continue to float around the sucker, and he does something with them. Yes, with the help of his pots, Stepan had cut the feeding base of this bastard, but he suspected that the scrawny thing would still demonstrate some cunning and unusual tactics.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:55

The second spirit had almost no retinue, just a handful of aquatic-animal-type creatures that followed their elder counterpart voluntarily rather than being controlled directly by him. This entity resembled a huge swordfish, swift, agile, masterfully planning between the etheric currents, and its blade-nose was dangerous even for Stepan's barriers, being the main, the only, and damn powerful weapon. Yes, the creature had nothing else to show in battle, but it obviously had enough, because its speed and maneuver multiplied by the piercing power of the nose-blade allowed it to tear apart even a not-too-maneuverable elder spirit with luck. A natural astral predator, very specialized and the more dangerous, even if not strong. This freak would have to be taken down literally first. He must not be allowed to show his best features. Otherwise, the elite of Stepan's summons would be thinned out, because this entity would hit the very elite against which the fish was most effective.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 19:57

Now, while he is not in a hurry to chisel into the barrier, letting someone else waste his strength, the creature might even seem weak, because he doesn't have much energy reserve, but maneuverability and striking power will play for the fish. And there is no one suitable in the stock, and those who are will be needed in the battle with other opponents. So it turned out that this swimmer was worth killing as quickly as possible, but at the same time not to take away from the important matters of the strongest summons. Or, strike first, tear the enemy literally with the first blow, immediately directing those freed after this blow to cover the holes that arose. It can go both very smoothly and calmly, or with extremely high losses among the thrown into the battle spirits of lower gradation, which the enemy will knock out in packs, while the strongest servants of the shaman will jam the fish, maybe even with dynamite.

Camrad_RIP 16.06.24 в 20:03

The number three contender for Stepan's guts was... balls with whiskers. Okay, we have to be serious, but this spirit really looked like a huge scrotum floating in the ether currents, which from the sides was crowned with two bundles of dense and stiff, but thin tentacles. It looked extremely obscene, and in another situation ridiculous, but in fact the creature was really powerful, damnably strong, and obviously not ordinary. The tentacle-whiskers carried a serious threat, and the spirit itself, without a clear sphere, was clearly not just a predator, but also preferred shamans meat. It literally vibes of hunger and hunger to devour, to devour slowly, leisurely, digesting a little at a time, letting it savor the suffering. By the looks of it, it had a lot of experience in eating careless shamans. The creature was literally broadcasting to Stepan and its own allies that it had come here for the spirit and body of a miserable little man, not for the power invested in totems and the glade. It was trying to frighten and break the will of the former, to calm the latter and at the same time to lay claim to the part of the prey it needed.

Camrad_RIP 13.06.24 в 09:05

Something told the young man that if he properly searched for references in local folklore or specialized literature, he might even find records of this hovering mustached scrotum. For true seniors, for recognized masters it is not dangerous, but beginners or inexperienced shamans without the support of a senior mentor, this spirit was a terror. He could also deliberately stalk them. And if the mentor also turned out to be a weak and inexperienced, then he too would be wiped to dust and this dust would be sucked into maw hidden between the two saggy balls. Giger would have burst into tears of happy ecstasy with this shit, but Stepan wanted to cry. The creature pressed and pressed hard, literally pushing fear into the earthling's essence, but that was nothing. In a normal state of mind he would have been able to drive away those ball bearing whiskers, and the creature wouldn't have come near him at all. He was already off the menu. He had already gained enough personal power and defense contracts that the cautious shit wouldn't come to death. Only now the situation was unusual, and the creature had plenty of allied entities that had a chance to eat whatever it wanted, which meant it wanted its favorite cut from the still suffering in agony inhabitant of the Reality.

Camrad_RIP 13.06.24 в 09:03

He would have assigned such shit to the first position in the degree of the greatest danger to his isekai ass, but alas, the last of the prominent guests turned out to be a worthy competitor to the flying scrotum and to be honest, he winged it like an ace covers a jack. And it wasn't because the mustachioed bastard was so weak, no, the creature was still deadly and very experienced in confronting shamans. It was just that the last of the four was a spirit of the animal sphere, but very thickly mixed with some kind of not even darkness, but literally infernal anger, horror, and simply brutal cruelty. Bears are not very kind animals, the spirits of this kinship are also often very dangerous, with arrogance, conflicted and excellent in battle, whether it was defense or attack, the role of the actual king of the forests, firmly entrenched in reality and feeding the power of the spirits born from this image. But this specimen...

Camrad_RIP 06.06.24 в 15:58

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Camrad_RIP 06.06.24 в 15:56